A landing craft transports migrants back to HMS Bulwark after their rescue in the Mediterranean Sea.
Photograph: Jason Florio/MOAS.EU

European plans for a military campaign to smash the migrant smuggling networks operating out of Libya include options for ground forces on Libyan territory.

The 19-page strategy paper for the mission, obtained by the Guardian, focuses on an air and naval campaign in the Mediterranean and in Libyan territorial waters, subject to United Nations blessing. But it adds that ground operations in Libya may also be needed to destroy the smugglers’ vessels and assets, such as fuel dumps.

“A presence ashore might be envisaged if agreement was reached with relevant authorities,” says the paper. “The operation would require a broad range of air, maritime and land capabilities. These could include: intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; boarding teams; patrol units (air and maritime); amphibious assets; destruction air, land and sea, including special forces units.”

Libya's people smugglers: military action won't stop this multifaceted trade

Read more

Senior diplomats and officials in Brussels, speaking privately about the military planning, have consistently stressed that there would be no prospect of “boots on the ground” in Libya. Responding to the Guardian’s disclosures, Federica Mogherini, the EU’s chief foreign and security policy coordinator, reiterated that position on Wednesday.

“We are not planning in any possible way a military intervention in Libya,” she said.

EU draws up plans for military attacks on Libya targets to stop migrant boats

Read more

But EU governments have still to discuss and decide on the planning document. A joint session of EU foreign and defence ministers is to decide on the mission on Monday, followed the next day by a meeting of defence chiefs from EU countries. The military package would then need to be given a green light by heads of government at an EU summit next month.

Mogherini said she expected Monday’s meeting to decide on the headquarters and command and control of the proposed mission. She sounded optimistic about a quick UN security council resolution allowing the use of force against the smugglers, but also made plain that if that proved impossible, the EU would still mount a military mission in the Mediterranean outside of Libyan territorial waters and airspace.

The document being discussed makes it clear that land operations in Libya might be needed and have not been ruled out.

They could include “action along the coast, in harbour or at anchor [against] smugglers’ assets and vessels before their use”.

The paper also speaks of “presence or tasks in the Libyan territory” and warns of “militia and terrorist” threats to the EU forces.

“The existence of heavy military armaments (including coastal artillery batteries) and military-capable militias present a robust threat to EU ships and aircraft operating in the vicinity,” the document states. “The terrorist presence in the region also constitutes a security threat. Action taken ashore could be undertaken in a hostile environment.”

The campaign’s aim is defined as “to disrupt the business model of the smugglers, achieved by undertaking systematic efforts to identify, seize/capture, and destroy vessels and assets before they are used by smugglers … The operation will need to be phased in and will be heavily dependent on intelligence.

“The mission is therefore defined to be ‘to provide surveillance, intelligence gathering and sharing, and assessment of smuggling activity towards and through the southern central Mediterranean area, and to stop, board, search and dispose of, possibly through their destruction, trafficking vessels and assets before use and thereby contribute to EU efforts to disrupt the business model of trafficking networks.”

Mogherini appeared to refute the suggestions in the strategy document of “action taken ashore”, asserting on Wednesday that there would be “no boots on the ground. I said no”.

Subject to a UN go-ahead, the military operations would need to focus on actions “inside Libya’s internal and territorial waters and the coast”, the document says, while adding that seizing and destroying vessels on the high seas or in international waters in the Mediterranean would also be mandated.

The planning document admits that the campaign could result in innocent people being killed: “Boarding operations against smugglers in the presence of migrants has a high risk of collateral damage including the loss of life.”

People smugglers using Facebook to lure migrants into 'Italy trips'

Read more

The military campaign planning has been ordered because of the influx of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East across the Mediterranean from Libya, with the death toll this year alone already estimated at nearly 2,000.

The paper cites information from the Italian police authorities saying that 200,000 migrants were preparing to board shoddy vessels to risk the crossing from Libya to Italy’s southern shores.

Up to 10 EU countries have volunteered to take part in the campaign, said senior officials, including Italy, which would command it, plus Britain, France and Spain.

On-the-ground reporting of Libyan smuggling networks suggests that pre-emptive military action would risk the prospect of serious collateral damage. According to smugglers and fishermen, smuggling vessels are often simply fishing boats bought on a one-time-use basis in the days prior to a smuggling mission, and kept in civilian harbours until the evening of their departure.

Libya's people smugglers: inside the trade that sells refugees hopes of a better life

Read more

To those not involved in the transaction, the boat’s new purpose would only be hinted at once it left port in the early evening, and dropped anchor some distance from the shore to await the arrival of its passengers by dinghy. This gives European navies only a brief window to identify smuggling vessels and destroy them without endangering innocent life.

EU forces would also have to contend with Libya’s many militias, most of which are broadly aligned under two rival governments. Both governments have rejected the prospect of foreign intervention on Libyan soil to combat smuggling.

Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa director, said: “Introducing measures to tackle smugglers without providing safe alternative routes out for the people desperate to flee conflict in Libya, will not resolve the plight of migrants and refugees.”